It is a problem in the field of alarm systems that there are numerous hazards that can be threatening to the occupants of a dwelling or a predetermined locale, and where such a hazard encompasses a widespread area, existing alarm systems are inadequate to properly warn individuals located in the impacted area. The automatic propagation of an alarm indication throughout an area that extends beyond the extent of an alarm system is beyond the capability of existing alarm systems. Furthermore, existing 911 and Reverse 911 systems are not integrally coordinated with the operation of alarm systems and thereby fail to benefit from the alarm indications produced by these systems.
In alarm systems that make use of autonomous alarm devices, the hazard detection sensors incorporated into these devices detect the immediate presence of a predetermined level, concentration, or intensity of the hazard. These autonomous alarm devices are located in fixed locations and respond to the incorporated hazard sensor to automatically generate an alarm indication, such as an audible alarm, to identify the presence of a hazard proximate to the alarm device. However, the audible alarm only alerts individuals who are presently located proximate to the active autonomous alarm device.
Present integrated home protection systems are pre-wired into a dwelling and typically function both as a burglar alarm system and a hazard detection system. These integrated home protection systems use a centralized architecture comprising a master-slave topology to manage a plurality of remotely located sensors and a plurality of remotely located alarm devices that are located in a dwelling. The master-slave topology has all of the remote (slave) sensors reporting alarm events to the central control unit which then responds by audibly alarming ALL remote alarm devices in the system and, if so designed, sending an alarm indication to an external agency, such as the local fire department. However, the integrated home protection systems are unable to respond to communications that are received from a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP).
Therefore, existing alarm systems fail to propagate an alarm indication beyond the bounds of their installation, except for an automatic notification transmitted to the police/fire department that serves the locale in which the alarm system is installed. These alarm systems also fail to provide the ability to receive communications from external sources in response to an alarm event, or provide output devices that are networked to cover a spatial area that may not be coextensive with the spatial area covered by the alarm devices. Thus, there is a need for an emergency event alarm system that coordinates the operation of multiple alarm systems and that provides an audible indication that a report of the hazard has been received at a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) or private security agency or emergency responder organization that serves the dwelling, and that can provide an output in a spatial area that may not be coextensive with the spatial area covered by the alarm devices.
In addition, existing Reverse 911 systems respond to the presence of an emergency situation by initiating an individual one-to-one telephone call, email or SMS message to every telephone number in the list of contacts. This process is time consuming since the number of calls can be significant, and also fails to include wireless telephones in the Reverse 911 call list. In addition, in a very large metropolitan area, such as Los Angeles during an earthquake, the sheer volume of one-to-one connections, data or voice, can overload the telecommunications infrastructure. Therefore, existing Reverse 911 systems are slow, prone to miss numbers due to a failure to answer, and do not cover all parties in the impacted area. There is a need for a Reverse 911 system that is more efficient and also covers individuals who use wireless telephones, whether as part of a cellular system or a local WiFi, WiMax Local Area Network.